Day 27: “Given into the Hands of Sinners”

Day 27

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

WEEK FOUR: FRIDAY 10 APRIL 2020

HOLY WEEK: GOOD FRIDAY

“Given into the Hands of Sinners”

Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. - Prayer for Good Friday, The Book of Common Prayer

He was a ‘friend’ of my father’s, as much as any semblance of genuine friendship can be known within the walls of the California State Prison in San Luis Obispo, California. I shook his hand and we sat and visited for awhile. He told me how in prison he had become a Christian, not in the ‘jailhouse conversion’ sense in hopes it might help his possibility for parole, for there would be none. Driving away after visiting with my father, I was aware of how odd my right hand seemed, and to this day I can still sense that unexplainable, uncomfortable ‘feeling’ – my hand had been, in the shaking of hands, held in a hand that had mercilessly slaughtered a roomful of innocent individuals, including a pregnant woman who begged for her life and that of her unborn child. His name was Charles “Tex” Watson, a member of the infamous ‘Helter Skelter’ Manson gang.     

For awhile after that day I thought that in placing my hand in his as we shook hands my hand was somehow different from his, until the Holy Spirit convicted me deep within with an awareness that my hand was no different, as though somehow Jesus died ‘more’ for him than for me because of the horrendous nature of his crimes, or as though somehow those who cried out “Crucify him! Crucify him!” were somehow more culpable.

Only as we grasp and are grasped by the reality that when Jesus was ‘given into the hands of sinners’ it includes our hands can we then be numbered among the beneficiaries of His death.   

Reflective question: In what ways are you responsible for the death of Jesus?

Reflective scripture: Isaiah 53:5 – “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

Reflective hymn: Ah, Holy Jesus- (Johann Heermann 1585-1647)

Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended,

that we to judge thee have in hate pretended?

By foes derided, by thine own rejected, O most afflicted?

Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee?

Alas, my treason, Jesus hath undone thee.

‘Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee; I crucified thee.